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Matilda at Six Months

Matilda is six months old today! Six months! Half a year! Already!

In the very early days, when each week was a milestone, everything felt slow; it felt like we were surviving hour to hour and the big, significant twelve week mark would never come. But it did. And every day since then - every day since eight weeks, actually - has zipped past. The weeks and months have disappeared.

At the same time, I can't get my head around the fact that this capable, determined, smiley child is the same little baby we brought home from the hospital. She has so much personality now; she is so very much Matilda; I can't believe how much she has developed in such a short space of time.

I thought it would be slower. I thought she would be a baby-baby for longer. She has toddling well within her sights already.

So, Matilda at six months:

She has friends. Actual friends who she hugs and holds hands with and who will crawl past twenty other babies to hang out with her. This has taken me by surprise.

Despite her very early attempts, she isn't crawling yet. She can support herself on all fours and rock back and forth but she hasn't figured out how to take the weight off any one limb yet. She seems pretty fed up of the whole thing now, to be honest, and wants to be on her feet at all times instead - she can pull herself upright, stand for almost half an hour if she has something to hold onto and can take extremely wobbly steps. She can also sit unsupported from one nap right through to the next.

In the last few days, she's realised that she doesn't have to sleep on her back, if she doesn't want to. She rolls all over her cot. She rolls all over the flat. She can twist and reach for things and rarely misses.

She has quiet days but most of the time she squeals and babbles happily. Her laughs are few and far between and oh so special for that. She will beam at almost anyone.

She wants to see and touch and chew everything. She is easily distracted from her bottle or her food and she struggles to nap in public now because there are so many interesting things to look at and listen to instead.

We have been weaning her since seventeen weeks (with our health visitor's go ahead) as she was growing so fast (from exactly average to the top of the height charts over the course of two months) that we couldn't get enough milk into her. She loves her food and has yet to refuse anything.

Two teeth have cut in the past week. And very sharp they are, too.

I've made a conscious decision not to do monthly updates about Matilda. This means I've missed telling you about fleeting things like her fascination with her feet or the week she started mimicking our kissing noises. But I found, from one month to the next, there wouldn't be much tangible difference in her; from three months ago to now, almost everything has changed.

I sometimes wonder what she's going to be like by the time she turns one. Or three. Or thirteen. Or thirty-six. She seems like such a complete little person right now that I can't really imagine her changing. And yet she will.